Tokyo, Manila step closer as tensions rise in Asia

Date: January 12 2013

Martin Fackler

TOKYO: In a sign of how China's rise has helped turn wartime foes into allies, Japan and the Philippines have agreed to co-operate more closely on maritime security.

During talks in Manila on Thursday, Japanese and Philippine foreign ministers declared their countries to be strategic partners that would collaborate to resolve their territorial disputes with China, the Kyodo News agency reported.

They also expressed ''mutual concern'' about China's increasingly assertive claims that have embroiled both nations.

They also agreed to exchange information and discuss each other's strategies for responding to China. The Philippine minister, Albert del Rosario, said the discussion included a request by his country for 10 new patrol boats from Japan to strengthen the Filipino coast guard.

His Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, was appointed last month by Japan's new conservative prime minister, Shinzo Abe. The decision that Mr Kishida's first overseas visit should be to the Philippines was seen as a symbolic gesture by Mr Abe, who has vowed to strengthen security ties with other democracies in the region in a bid to offset China's growing military and political clout.

Mr Abe has also said he wants to work more closely with the US and Australia to help bolster the capacity of less-developed countries such as the Philippines, to stand up to China. In a further sign that China's more aggressive tone is challenging the existing order of the region, a high-level US delegation due in Seoul and Tokyo next week, is expected to urge allies Japan and South Korea to mend strained ties that have damaged security co-operation.

The two north-east Asian democracies have fallen out over a territorial dispute and Japan's attitude about its colonial past.

The trip takes place against a backdrop of more threatening tensions between Japan and China over disputed islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku by the Japanese and Diaoyu by the Chinese. Reports suggest Japan's new government may take a tougher line on what it considers repeated Chinese incursions into its territorial waters.

The top US diplomat for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, said on Thursday that the US would urge ''care and caution'' in the dispute.

In June, a planned intelligence-sharing pact between Japan and South Korea was derailed. Then in August, a visit by South Korea's outgoing President Lee Myung-bak to the Takeshima islands claimed by both nations led to angry exchanges.